Everything seems to be moving online these days and the marketing world is no different, with advertising professionals devoting increasing proportions of their budgets to internet-based initiatives.

According to recent research by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), annual online ad spend was up 17 per cent to £3.3 billion in 2008, while market share increased to 19.2 per cent.

Web-based marketing was the only medium to experience growth last year, as businesses sought accountability and measurable returns on their investment, with expenditure up by £540 million year-on-year, despite a 3.5 per cent fall in overall advertising spend in 2008.

According to research by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA), businesses are re-allocating their budgets towards the internet, with 37 per cent of marketers saying online ad spend is moving from TV, 32 per cent suggesting a transfer from newspapers and 46 per cent re-distributing money from magazines.

Companies are also changing their spending patterns based on their target demographic. Since over half actively target the 25 to 44 age group, which spends between 11 and 13.9 hours a week online on average, the internet would seem to be the way to go.

“With every media investment closely scrutinised by brands and a renewed focus on return on investment, online comes into its own as the most effective way of providing accountability for marketers,” said Alison Fennah, executive director of the EIAA.

“Market conditions are tough, yet online is continuing to innovate and emerging formats such as mobile advertising and online video advertising look set to become big players in the next few years as brands see the benefit of cross-platform marketing campaigns,” she added.

In addition, the online industry has experienced strong growth across all advertising formats, the IAB reports.

Display ads accounted for 19.8 per cent of online advertising during 2008, with £333.8 million being spent across all display formats between January and June 2008.

Paid-for listings remained the largest single format, with £981 million spent on search advertising, dominating with a 58.3 per cent share of the market.

Classifieds account for 21.5 per cent, experiencing substantial expansion to £361.6 million worth of revenue last year.

Solus Email, still a relatively new category, accounts for just 0.4 per cent of the market, with £6.1 million being spent on this format.

Tsafrir Peles, co-chief executive at internet marketing firm DMG, says the current economic climate is likely to boost the appeal of online advertising.

“Because of the recession, people aren’t going out so they’ll spend more time on the internet. From our perspective, people spending more time on the internet means they generate more conversions. It means that we have more media there to fulfil our advertisers’ needs,” he explains.

“When companies shrink and try and control expenses and try control costs, they don’t necessarily go to TV ads, but they will go to resolved based [internet] advertising,” he suggests.

“In terms of measurability and accountability of online advertising it is a medium that is very, very good at showing return on investment, especially in parts of it – especially in search but also in classifieds, less in display, but overall it is pretty good at showing that if you invest £1 in something what you get out of it,” she asserts.